Is the potential matchup between Puerto Rico’s lineal middleweight champion Miguel Cotto and Mexican superstar Saul “Canelo” Alvarez bigger than one of greatest matchups in the history of the Mexico-Puerto Rico rivalry – Oscar De La Hoya-Felix Trinidad? De La Hoya seems to think that it has the potential to be the biggest fight in the rivalry’s history.
Canelo and Cotto is being proposed for May of next year. It is a significant fight, and according to De La Hoya it is the biggest fight that can be made in boxing. He is on record of saying that it has surpassed the desire fans have for seeing the long awaited showdown between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao.
It is no secret that De La Hoya feels this way and his logic is sound. The fact is nobody believes the fight will ever take place between the pound for pound kingpin and the pride of the Philippines, but fans are growing tired of the idea as a whole. Both fighters have danced around the subject for so long that a new desire seems to have taken over in the form of Canelo-Cotto.
“Forget about Mayweather- Pacquiao, let’s start talking about Canelo-Cotto. From the feedback that I’ve been receiving everywhere I go, phone calls that I get, emails I receive, it’s Canelo-Cotto. We feel that it’s our obligation as Canelo’s promoter to hopefully make that happen relatively soon,” De La Hoya told Thaboxingvoice.com’s Josh Grayfer.
De La Hoya has made these kind of statements to multiple websites over the past few weeks, including Boxingscene.com, telling the site that Canelo-Cotto can do 2 million PPV buys.
However, he has only ever given his opinion about Canelo-Cotto being boxing’s number one fight through the negativity that Mayweather-Pacquiao has received. But De La Hoya has actually laid out his rationality behind the bold statements he’s made as it pertains to the power of Canelo-Cotto.
“Canelo-Cotto, the reason why I say it is the biggest fight that can be made today is because not only do you have the fight fans who will watch, but now you’re bringing in the women that follow Cotto, that love Cotto, and the millions of women that love Canelo.”
When De La Hoya met Felix Trinidad in September 1999 the fight was a huge success and the lead up to the fight was massive. Women filled the arena on fight night, but their presence was also felt at the media events for the fight. Trinidad was a sex symbol, De La Hoya was a bigger sex symbol. The fight had everything, all of the fixtures necessary for a successful event, perhaps none more important for the historical relevance than the Mexico-Puerto Rico rivalry that thrived throughout the promotion.
De La Hoya sees all of those same elements in Canelo-Cotto magnified to the fullest extent.
“You have the Puerto Rican-Mexican element to it, but then you have the part of it that is so competitive. Cotto demonstrated against Martinez that he hasn’t lost a step, he’s actually gotten better with Freddie Roach, Canelo is just getting better so really you have two fighters at their peak. Mexican-Puerto Rican at their peak, women clamor over them, this has the ingredients to be the biggest event in boxing history.”
